In twist, SEC might save Elon Musk
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Investigation could bolster tech tycoon's attempt to back out of Twitter deal.
The internet sales tax bill passed in the senate today. reaction to the vote tells you a lot about the reality of washington lobbying. brian bieron of ebay. ebay worked hard to defeat this legislation. they even sent out e-mails to customers trying to rally customer base. big question for you is, look, everybody has got to pay sales tax when buying in a physical location. the technology exists. when i order something, they know they're shipping it to my address in new york, new york is a sales tax, shouldn't we just level the playing field and have everybody paying taxes? why have this imagina...
Rachelle, is there evidence, empirical evidence that in the states without the sale taxes, oregon for example, that people are more inclined to buy at brick and mortar stores? do we have any evidence suggesting that's the case? >> no, i don't have any evidence of that case. and as a matter of fact, i have to say when we survey consumers to determine whether they would spend less on the internet, if sales taxes are imposed, in fact, they say that they would probably maybe about 10% of them say that they think that they might spend less, but most think they would continue the current spending ha...
Washington undertaking. what is your response to brian? >> well, here's my concern. the problem is that we have brick and mortar stores, small businesses, in every community. and those people have to collect taxes on the first dollar that they receive. and if there is a very large small business exemption for remote sellers that is also not permitted for brick and mortar sellers, then those small businesses are still at a competitive disadvantage. and they cannot compete with remote sellers that do not have to pay taxes. they have that problem now. and we want have fixed the problem if we don'...
>> i urge the senate not to move forward on the marketplace fairness act. >> sovereignty of our states is significantly eroded. >> could seriously harm america's small businesses. >> unleashes all the nation's tax collectors on small internet businesses. >> urge you to vote against this motion. ♪ >> now, if you haven't been paying attention to this battle, you may be a little confused and that would be fair because your usual rules of thumb likely will not apply. more than 20 republicans voted for the bill, which really makes you wonder, but on other hand, grover norquist hates it. so then i...